lia Chief Executive Officer Barry O'Farrell
summed it up as "world class and revolu-
tionary."
"In the early stages, there was a bit of re-
luctance among owners and trainers about
training horses at Conghua, primarily be-
cause of the distance from Hong Kong
coupled with a fear of the unknown," said
Bill Nader, director of racing business and
operations of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
"But the early results have been so encour-
aging that our impor tant stakeholders
not only accept Conghua as a world-class
training centre, they now embrace it."
The site was built with the vision to take
Hong Kong racing to the next level and to
create a more spacious and relaxed train-
ing environment for Hong Kong racehors-
es, while still maintaining the longstand-
ing principle that Sha Tin is the home
base. Hong Kong is one of the world's
most densely populated areas and the
city's skyrocketing property prices mean
that there is literally no place in Hong
Kong to allow the Club to build additional
training facilities. After searching for suit-
able land for 20 years without success,
the Hong Kong Jockey Club finally solved